You are the GM

I'm not sure where to go to find out player contracts (length, value, restrictions, clauses)...but I'm opening up a discussion to what you would do with these players if you were the GM.

Anyone know the contract status of Livingston? Isnt he a restricted FA after this year...or is that next year?

Just as David said, we should lock up Q-Ross for a good amount of years. That should be a priority. Resigning Maggette should be the biggest question. If you ask me, we need to come close to securing the PG of our future. If it came down to keeping Shaun or Corey...I'd rather keep Corey. Jason Hart or a draft pick can take over and probably do just as well as Shaun has done in the past. With Brand, Kaman, Mobley, and Thomas locked up for a few years yet, let's get Ross and Maggette fully on board, find that PG we need. Continue development of Singleton, Ewing and Davis. Release Aaron Williams, Zeljko Rebraca and Yaroslave Korolev if we can. Sign Baby Shaq and find out if Guillermo Diaz can play at this level and we're right on track.

What would you guys do?

JamFan

03/21/2007 - 10:42 AM PST

Clipper All-Star

Posts: 2375

votes: 22

I'm not quite sure yet about all the roster moves we should make on our starting 5 until the draft is over, but strengthening our bench is what will get us to the next level. Sterling has made a committment to signing the starters to long term deals, but the Clippers are still in the bottom 1/3 of all NBA teams in terms of how much money they are spending on their roster. What make teams like Phoenix, Dallas, and San Antonion so great is not only their starting 5 great, but they have all stars sitting on their bench. The Clippers on the other hand has a bench that the coach has no confidence in and won't play, and when we have key injuries, as all teams do, we can not sustain our level of play. So we need to beef up our starting 5 and our bench 5.

TGMosesVI

03/21/2007 - 03:53 PM PST

Clipper 6th Man

Posts: 121

Location: Los Angeles

votes: 4

It all depends. I guess my first question would be how much it would take to resign Livingston. Without a doubt, Livingston IS the biggest item on the team's summer agenda. In my estimation, the Clippers won't be able to do much good anywhere else if they don't figure this one out. Q-Ross is a great player and I hoping the Clippers are looking to resign him for the longterm, but I don't see that as a pressing issue. Let's face it, the market isn't hungry for him. There's a reason why Livingston has been rumored in every GM trade deal and Q-Ross has not.

So it looks like Brand and Maggette can opt out after next season, and Livingston is a restricted FA after next season. The team have the option for Singleton for next season and they have the option for Ross the season after next (which I'm sure will be exercised).

Obviously Shaun is a big question mark for next year. Maybe the Clippers can re-sign both he and Maggette since Shaun probably won't be demanding big money. I'm not sure that Hart would be a good long term starter for the Clippers- maybe a backup. He's pretty solid but the Clippers need a stronger scoring threat from the PG position to take pressure off of Brand on double teams. So hopefully in the draft the Clippers can get a good ball handler who has a good mid-range game + can hit 3's. Maybe Guillermo Diaz can probably help, but I'm still iffy about this status with the Clippers. Wikipedia says, however, that he plans on participating in the Clippers summer league team:

"After his departing from the Czech league Diaz announced that he was interested in including his name to the list of players in the BSN draft. He was involved in a movement that was trying to convince the team owners of the league to avoid the implementation of a salary top to first year players, however the team owners decided to put a top salary of twenty five thounsand dollars wich lead Diaz to remove his name from the list of players. This lead former owner Miguel Mercado to create a movement inciting first year players to withdraw their names from the draft, the controversy reached a conclusion when Miguel Mercado and the league reached an agreement. Diaz announced that he was going to skip participation on any league and will remain training to participate in the Clippers summer league team."